Hollington, Guy

I started blowing glass because of an off-hand comment of a friend to my wife. “Oh, you should have glass blowing on your bucket list.” the friend said. While not there for the original comment, I did hear my wife’s later comments that ran something along the lines of “do you know all the things on my list? I don’t have time for glass blowing!” I, however, realized that I did have time; and what started with a one week an evening course for six short weeks, turned into a full-time passion that has eclipsed my former consulting work. I found the medium to be difficult and frustrating, and at the same time mesmerizing and challenging. In addition, there was the heat, the spontaneity, a touch of implied danger and the challenge of wrestling this material into something resembling the original idea and getting that something into the “box” (annealer) at the end. Further courses, study, practice and refinement lead to an ever-increasing respect for the medium. A study of its history lead to explorations into Venetian techniques of blowing including goblet making, cane, murrini and a variety of other techniques. The presence of a cold shop and sandblaster in the studio lead to further exploration of glass outside of the initial creation of the blown vessel and provided a glass canvas for my current series of work.